Actually, this argument works beyond the issue of religious-organization exemption as well, as I’ve repeatedly argued. Why should we force any employer to directly subsidize birth control? What role does an employer have in the bedroom, anyway? The intrusion on what should be a free-market choice makes even less sense when (a) the comprehensive long-term study by the Center for Disease Control shows access plays no significant part in unwanted pregnancies — indeed, it’s not even mentioned as an issue in its 20-year study — and (b) taxpayers already subsidize contraception for Medicaid recipients through Title X? This has always been a cure in search of a disease.

It’s bad enough on a policy level, but the imposition of this mandate on religious organizations is especially offensive — and insidious. The HHS religious exemption only accounts for “places of worship” and organizations that solely consist of members of the same faith and service only the same community. This represents an attempt by the Obama administration to regulate the definition of religious expression in order to curtail it. This goes far beyond the issue of contraception — it’s an attack on a core principle of liberty itself.